"Agile", or "XP", or anything else along those lines is no substitute for leadership. For giving a damn about the team, the product, or the company.
No amount of sprint planning, backlog grooming[1], or sock-monkeys flying across the room during a standup can make up for a lack of leadership.
In your current situation, I would wager that -- early on -- the development team committed to a lot of deliverables and then failed to deliver, either due to overconfidence, or pressure from an overeager management team. Afterwards, an Agile Process was installed to ensure that This Sort Of Thing Never Happens Again.
The end result is what I like to call Agile Bondage, where everybody focuses on the process, rather than the product or the customer.
[1] Backlog grooming, with the entire team, is generally an antipattern. You do not need the entire team to grind to a halt to make sure the stories in the backlog are actionable. Have the product owner grab a pair after the standup to review upcoming stories to make sure that things look kosher for the rest of the team.
No amount of sprint planning, backlog grooming[1], or sock-monkeys flying across the room during a standup can make up for a lack of leadership.
In your current situation, I would wager that -- early on -- the development team committed to a lot of deliverables and then failed to deliver, either due to overconfidence, or pressure from an overeager management team. Afterwards, an Agile Process was installed to ensure that This Sort Of Thing Never Happens Again.
The end result is what I like to call Agile Bondage, where everybody focuses on the process, rather than the product or the customer.
[1] Backlog grooming, with the entire team, is generally an antipattern. You do not need the entire team to grind to a halt to make sure the stories in the backlog are actionable. Have the product owner grab a pair after the standup to review upcoming stories to make sure that things look kosher for the rest of the team.